Trumps corrects statement about Russian meddling in US election

Donald Trump made a stunning backflip in his position on Russia. But there’s a lot more to it than a little punctuation error.Source:AFP

IN A stunning backflip, Donald Trump has blamed two letters and a punctuation mark for the misinterpretation of his stance on Russia.

The US President now says he “accepts” the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the US presidential election — despite claiming the opposite when he met Vladimir Putin in Helsinki just yesterday.

In a bizarre explanation for his contradictory statements, Mr Trump said he had seen a transcript of his comments from the summit and had misspoken.

“In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’,” he explained.

He said the sentence should have been, “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,” rather than, “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia.”

Mr Trump said it was “sort of a double negative,” adding, “I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”

The transcript of Donald Trump’s press conference with Vladimir Putin shows he backed up Russia repeatedly.Source:AP

But the actual transcript of the 46-minute joint press conference shows there’s a lot more to it than a one-word mix-up. This wasn’t just a lone out-of-place word. This was a consistent position he reiterated multiple times in response to questions.

Take a look:

• Donald Trump was asked if he “holds Russia at all accountable for anything in particular”, and what it might be responsible for.

TRUMP: I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago — a long time, frankly, before I got to office. And I think we’re all to blame. I think that the United States now has stepped forward, along with Russia. And we’re getting together. And we have a chance to do some great things, whether it’s nuclear proliferation, in terms of stopping — because we have to do it. Ultimately, that’s probably the most important thing that we can be working on.

But I do feel that we have both made some mistakes. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the fore.

So far, that I know, virtually none of it related to the campaign. And they’re going to have try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the campaign. That was a clean campaign. I beat Hillary Clinton easily. And frankly, we beat her — and I’m not even saying from the standpoint — we won that race. And it’s a shame that there can even be a little bit of a cloud over it.

People know that. People understand it. But the main thing, and we discussed this also, is zero collusion. And it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 per cent of nuclear power between the two countries. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous what’s going on with the probe.

• Vladimir Putin is asked why Americans should believe that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election, given all the evidence to the contrary. Donald Trump jumped in to answer this.

TRUMP: We won the Electoral College by a lot — 306 to 223, I believe. And that was a well-fought — that was a well-fought battle. We did a great job.

And, frankly, I’m going to let the President speak to the second part of your question. But just to say it one time again, and I say it all the time: There was no collusion. I didn’t know the President. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign. And every time you hear all of these — you know, 12 and 14 — it’s stuff that has nothing to do — and frankly, they admit, these are not people involved in the campaign.

But to the average reader out there, they’re saying, “Well, maybe that does.” It doesn’t. And even the people involved, some perhaps told mis-stories or, in one case, the FBI said there was no lie. There was no lie. Somebody else said there was.

TRUMP: I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer. Okay? Thank you.

He also clarified he did not see Mr Putin as an “adversary” or a “rival”, saying he “actually called him a competitor”.

“And a good competitor he is,” Mr Trump said. “And I think the word ‘competitor’ is a compliment.”